


You Could Be the Sunshine

by pene



Category: Blue Crush (2002)
Genre: Character of Color, F/F, Female Friendship, Female Protagonist, Femslash, Romance, Sports, Surfing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-01-25
Updated: 2005-01-25
Packaged: 2017-10-04 23:38:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pene/pseuds/pene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"we're surfers too," Lena says, "Remember?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Could Be the Sunshine

You Could Be The Sunshine

*

Anne-Marie sends a postcard. Lena scrunches her eyes a little to read it aloud. "Everyone's treating me great. Five star. Layne gave me some pointers. Wish you were here."

"Layne," Eden snorts. Lena tosses the card to Penny.

Penny doesn't read it, just glances at the picture and asks, "Where is she?"

"Trestles," Lena says.

"Where's that?"

"Turn it over 'n see for yourself," says Eden.

Penny rolls her eyes. "California, right?" she mouths to Lena, a moment later.

Lena sticks the postcard on the fridge door, picture in, handwriting out and Anne-Marie's scrawled xoxo at the end. They live in Hawaii so it isn't as though blue and gold waves are that exotic. She looks inside the fridge. "There's enough milk for one of those pasta packs. Okay?" She turns to Eden but Eden has been frowning since the postcard arrived.

"Earth to-" Lena starts but Eden's already walking out. Moments later the sander in her shed is humming.

Penny says, "Fuck her then. She just misses her girlfriend," and asks "The milk still good?" as Lena says, "They're not girlfriends."

Ten years and they know almost everything about each other, but Lena's never tried to explain how she feels as Eden wraps an arm surely around some mainlander girl's waist and slips her fingers under the waistband of the girl's cut-offs.

*

At 4 am Eden wakes Lena and the three of them watch the start of the Billabong Pro through the fog of bad reception and too little sleep. They can barely hear the announcers but the static rises and falls like the surf.

"Is that her?" Lena asks, for the fourth time.

"She's blonde," says Eden. "Remember?"

Lena tries to smile. "The waves are picking up over at the crescent," she says a moment later. "We should go out once the sun rises."

Eden looks over. Penny is still peering at the television screen.

"We're surfers too," Lena says. "Remember?"

*

It's easy to be happy on the ocean, light striking them from all directions. Lena squints at oncoming waves and grins into the spray. She looks over at Eden and half shouts over the noise.

"I love this."

"Yeah."

"No. I just-" She doesn't mean to be giving advice. "I don't want you to forget that you love it. Just cause she got the sponsorship and shit. I mean. It doesn't take that to love it out here."

Eden lifts her chin to point out a wave that's folding at the tip. After they slide through the foam and drop down the other side she shakes water from her hair and says, "You think I'm living through her, too?"

"What? No."

"But?"

"You're the kind of girl that's gotta be fighting something, Ede. And it's sort of a fight out here. Each wave. It's not like everyone gets to do this."

Eden chews on her lip. "Take this next one?" she offers, and it's a little like she understands.

Later Lena watches Eden fly toward the beach, knees bent, all dark muscle and focus, with the wave on her heels.

On the shore Eden lets her shoulder bump against Lena's board. "Not half bad, am I?"

"Nah," Lena beams into the sun.

Eden laughs shortly and Lena says, "What?"

"You're like Polly-fucking-anna, all sunshine."

It's Eden and it's not an insult. Lena blushes.

"Come on," Eden says, "Pen's gonna be late." Their bodies and boards buffet each other as they run across the packed sand.

*

"Headlights," says Lena automatically as they climb out of the car. Eden reaches through the window to switch them off.

The air is heavy and damp and Lena looks across the ocean where clouds swell from the horizon, black on black on deepest blue. She glances at Eden. "Wonder if the storm will break up the party." Eden's scowling at the world again.

There're only locals on this stretch of beach, especially late, when the moon lays a furrowed blue path across the water. The sand is warm and fine and black under their feet. Someone has hooked full-size speakers to their car stereo. The music is a little tinny but waves tumble and pound out of time and add a sort of heavy bass thud to the sound.

Lena heads toward the gathering crowd, turning back to Eden and giving a shake of her hips, all confidence in familiar surrounds. Eden smiles, grudgingly, and Lena blows Eden a kiss. Someone Lena vaguely recognizes hands her a plastic cup. He has the chapped skin and defined shoulders of a surfer. They all do. Lena tosses back her head and downs the drink.

"Mario, right?"

"'S right."

"Lena," she says.

Across the sand Eden is smiling again, standing against a van between two of the guys, half lit by headlights. She's holding a drink with one hand while the other fashions what can only be a board in the air. Lena turns back to Mario.

"Come an' dance?" She nods across to the mobile alcohol-fuelled mass.

Mario grins. "I'm all yours, baby."

She grabs another drink on the way.

Dancing is a weird freedom, threading between warm bodies, feeling the thud and roll of the ocean through the sand. She's a little out of control and likes it. Through a break in the crowd she catches the flicker of Eden's eyes. Eden looks away. And it may be the alcohol, she's on her fourth drink, but there's a kind of clarity. Oh, she thinks. Oh.

Mario's hand runs up her ass and she turns back to him distractedly. "You got something on your mind, girlie?" he asks and she shrugs and smiles. He's too attentive but it's a good song. Another good song, another drink, and he reaches under her T-shirt, damp palm against her skin, and begins to unlace her bikini top. She steps back a little. He grunts, "What've I got to do?" And inside her head she rolls her eyes. On the outside she just smiles and steps away. His hand is on her arm.

"Aw, fuck ya," he says, more loudly.

"Yeah, honey, there's no way," Lena says mildly but then Eden's there in his face.

"You gonna leave 'er alone?"

He snorts a little, looks down on them. "Easy there Eden," he says derisively. "You planning on turning another pretty little thing?"

Lena starts to say, "Leave it, Ede, he's not worth it." But maybe he is. Anyway, Eden's got a fist up and has punched him in the mouth before Lena can grab her arm. Mario's a big guy but he's surprised and when he reaches for his lip there's blood.

"Fuck," he starts, and goes to swing at her but by then Drew and JJ and the boys are on him and Lena pulls Eden out of the way. The call, "fight... fight..." blends with the music as Lena follows Eden away, though mostly it sounds a little bored.

They climb into the car. Eden's incensed and Lena stays quiet for a moment as Eden throws the car into reverse. But suddenly Lena's laughing.

"Whoo! Whoooooo!" she hollers out the window. She turns to Eden. "Look at you, babe, all tough and shit."

Eden chuckles a little then half grins, eyes still on the road. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Face it, that guy's an asshole."

"And you have a fine right hook."

"Right cross."

"Whatever, babe. You gotta know you'll be locked away for good one of these days. I'll have to come bring you Twinkies and bottles water from the Pacific. Pass them through the bars." Lena giggles, buzzed.

Eden glances at her briefly. The headlights sweep ahead of them and the dash lights are faintly green on Eden's profile. Lena puts her hand on Eden's thigh. Outside the car black palm leaves bend and scrape in a rising wind.

When Eden turns left onto the Makai Pali Road, Lena grins. "You daredevil."

"I want to watch this storm come in."

The road skirts the cliffs and they take the turns roughly. Lena feels like she's hanging over the ocean. The air is thick with salt and water and above them the dark sky is close. On the horizon the stars are vanishing.

"Shit," says Eden suddenly.

Lena turns away from the sea. "What?" Her fingers still rest on Eden's thigh and she removes them.

"Gas. Shit. I forgot we were so close to empty."

"Will Mikey be open? Or we can go back to the boys-"

The car sputters a little and Lena stops talking.

"We need to get off the road," Eden says. The car sputters again. As they roll into a tiny lookout area the engine fades out and dies.

"Fuck." Eden climbs out of the car and kicks at a tire with her bare feet. "Fuck. Fuck." She takes a few steps toward the ocean.

Lena climbs out of the car, not entirely steadily. "We can walk back to the beach."

"By the time we get there everyone's gonna be gone."

"Not if the storm holds off. Anyway they've drunk so much they -"

"So have you. And it's a fucking death trap, Lena, this road in the dark."

"Fine, you got a suggestion?"

Then the rain begins, drops in smooth warm sheets across the gravel, and there's nothing to discuss. Eden and Lena get back into the car, faintly wet and angry. Rain swathes the windscreen and through it the sky lights up and collapses, over and again.

In the glow Eden looks unexpectedly foreign, and on a breath Lena thinks that might be what beauty is. Water drips down Lena's back as she shifts forward and lifts her knuckles to Eden's jaw line. Eden turns her face slowly and presses her lips lightly to the back of Lena's fingers. Her breathing is steady, may be unchanged, but Lena sees the tension in the line of her neck as she exhales.

The noise of the rain masks the creak of the vinyl seat, the thud of Eden's hip against the steering wheel as she twists forward. Lightning runs across the sky and when Lena closes her eyes the image of Eden's face fades into streaks of white light. Then the car door is at her back and Eden's sunburned lips are rough against her own.

Lena flattens her hand against Eden's taut back, which is slick with drops of rain. In her brain there is nowhere but closer together, and Lena presses the crown of her head against the car door and arches her back to bring their bodies into contact.

"Hold on, baby, hold on," murmurs Eden and slides her knee between Lena's on the car seat, slips her hand under Lena's short skirt, traces circles with her thumb against Lena's underwear and maybe they both moan at the feel, "God. Lena. God."

Against the shifting rain Eden's a stranger and yet so familiar. The air is hot and moist, the car windows are fogged. When Eden slips Lena's underwear off Lena doesn't think beyond her skin.

*

The early morning heat tastes like another person in her mouth. Lena wakes to Eden saying, maybe gently, "get your ass up, you." The sun is a narrow strip at the horizon. Lena stretches out the aches in her back and neck and doesn't know whether to smile. She smiles.

The island is gleaming new. They walk the three miles back to the beach along the cliff edge.

Eden says, "So. That happened"

"Yeah. Yeah it did," says Lena, glad to be saying something.

Their shoulders brush against one another when they're not walking single file.

Lena says, "Everything's fucking bright this morning." Eden takes off her sunglasses and hands them to Lena with a crooked smile.

Some of the guys have crashed on the beach or in their cars. "Give us your phone," says Eden to a sodden JJ, calls Penny and says, "We're on our way." Drew drives them back to the car with a can of gas.

At home there's an envelope from Anne-Marie with a check in it and a note that says, "Back in a week! Love you girls."

"I guess we can get the electricity back on now," Eden says. Lena prods Penny until she gets up and dresses.

*

In the hotel locker room they change into their uniforms. "Look at you," says Eden. She sounds surprised. They're running late but Lena steps close to toy with the button at Eden's breasts and then wonders if she's too confident with this unfamiliar thing.

They clean room after gleaming white room. They've always worked with a physical awareness of the others but this is different and Lena is brimming with it.

The last room is near done. Lena doesn't see Eden turn the deadbolt, but she hears the light bump of metal against wood and turns. Eden walks toward her across the room and Lena can't look away. It's morning bright, sunlight reflected from mirrors and walls, and there's no way to pretend Eden a stranger.

As they kiss in the centre of the room Eden slips a hand up Lena's dress and Lena giggles a little, roughly, barely breathing. Eden's hand curves over Lena's bare ass and Eden says, "oh," deep in her chest. Her eyes meet Lena's and there's hunger and amusement there.

"I thought I might not need to wear them," says Lena as Eden leans in again.

"Sexy thing," says Eden, around Lena's lips, and runs her thumb over Lena's hip bone. Lena shifts back a fraction and reaches to unbutton Eden's uniform where it stretches across her breasts. Eden lets it fall from her shoulders.

"Sit down," says Eden.

Lena perches at the foot of the hotel bed and Eden kneels to slide her body between Eden's legs. The tiny uniform bunches around Lena's hips as Eden moves closer, bends her head. She runs her tongue experimentally over the hollow at the top of Lena's thigh.

"Oh," Lena says, looking down on Eden's dark head and smooth back, naked to the waist. She winds the fingers of one hand in Eden's hair and tries not to tug.

Eden flattens her tongue hard against Lena and runs it up between the folds of Lena's skin. "So beautiful," she breathes against Lena. "You taste so good." Eden's voice is a threading pulse as she laps at Lena.

Lena raises her hips from the bed and repeats herself, "Oh God." Then she takes a breath and manages, "please. Please kiss me." Eden is half smiling as she slides up Lena's body, her nipples dragging lightly across Lena's uniform. Lena wishes they were skin against skin but then Eden slips a finger inside her, two fingers and Lena stops wishing for anything. She moans.

"Hush," says Eden and kisses her. Eden tastes like lemon and salt; Eden tastes like Lena and still it's foreign. Lena closes her eyes and feels her heartbeat rise with her blood in the dark behind her eyelids.

She pushes at Eden and rolls with her so they lie side by side. And with her eyes open she moves down Eden's body, runs her tongue across a breast and a hand over Eden's stomach. She slips further down, breathes through her nose and when she first tastes Eden she shudders a little. Then, on Eden's gasp, she buries herself there and sucks. She pushes her tongue into Eden until the back of her mouth pulls painfully. She breathes into warm dark hair and giggles, a little, as Eden arches her back.

Then Lena pulls back and uses the tip of her tongue to flick at Eden's clit. Eden rocks back a little, steadies herself with a hand on Lena's shoulder. Lena listens, laps over and over, harder, until Eden is shaking beneath her.

Lena thinks that maybe all she wants is Eden, who's never asked her for anything, to say, "Please. More please." When Eden does Lena lifts her head a little, wipes at the corner of her mouth, and grins, 'cause nothing has ever felt as good as this.

*

The sun is setting and Lena and Eden have seen it maybe a million times. Color bends around the horizon. Palms stir, black against orange.

They've lashed their boards to the top of the car and Eden is squeezing her hair out onto the sand. Lena grabs a bottle of water and sits cross-legged on the still warm bonnet. When Eden joins her their knees brush. The sun glows round and bright. Lena passes the water across.

"Thanks."

"Anne Marie's landing soon?" asks Lena, who knows.

"Yeah."

Eden passes the water back. Lena stretches one leg and leans back against the windshield. She keeps her eyes on the glowing horizon and starts, "When do we tell-" as Eden says, "I'm gonna sell this one board, the green and yellow one."

Lena turns to her. "To that surf shop guy?"

"Yeah. If he sells it he'll want more too." Eden is proud.

"That's fabulous." Eden grins and stretches her spine a little, slides her hand between Lena's back and the warm windscreen.

Lena starts again. "Anne-Marie. When are we gonna say-" but Penny is walking across the sand. Eden hands the water bottle back to Lena stands and shouts, "Run, Pen! We need to get to the airport."

Penny mutters and maybe hurries a little. Eden lifts the front of Penny's board onto the roof and Lena slides off the bonnet and starts the car.

*

Lena has: "Anne-Marie Chadwick: Surfer Babe," in rainbow colored block letters across a poster board. They pile into the car to head to the airport. Penny bounces a little on the seat as Eden starts the car.

The plane is late and they perch on plastic chairs in the airport Burger King. Lena rests the poster board against her knees. Penny eats fries, offers them to Lena. And Lena, who never turns down food, stares at them and shakes her head. It's almost eleven and her eyelids feel dry and sandy.

Mostly she watches Eden. And suddenly Eden's eyes light and focus. The sliding doors open and there Anne-Marie is blonde and blue-eyed and beaming and perfect. Penny leaps up and runs, doesn't bother to hide her delight. Anne-Marie hugs her fiercely. As Eden and Lena reach them Anne-Marie reaches out an arm, grabs Eden and kisses her cheek, pulls Lena in. Everyone talks at once.

"You did so good. I screamed and screamed for you."

"You did yourself proud."

"Was it gorgeous? Did they look after you?"

"I just. I missed you guys. I'm so glad to be home."

They're a mass of smiles and boards and baggage, walking out of the terminal.

*

Anne-Marie looks around the house and Eden chuckles. "Don't worry, the roaches are still here and we saved something mouldy in the fridge for you."

"It's home," says Anne-Marie and there's a silent moment when everyone smiles before Lena reaches across and turns on the radio.

Anne-Marie vaguely unpacks but mostly just pushes her bags into a corner with her foot. "I'm dead. Every muscle hurts. And I have to start training again tomorrow." She pulls her t-shirt over her head and opens a drawer, finds a tank top and boxers. "Bedtime Pen," and there's maybe a kind of wistfulness in her saying that.

Penny rolls her eyes, shrugs, and astonishingly lies down. "Justin wanted to kiss me," she says, experimentally.

Anne-Marie turns to her. "Justin?"

"But I told him to get fucked," says Penny, happy, and shuts her eyes.

Lena scoots onto Anne-Marie's bed with her back against the wall. When Anne-Marie comes over she kisses Lena on the top of her head, says, "yeah, honey. I'm really gonna sleep," Lena slides off with a smile.

Curled on the mattress on the floor Lena sees Eden, in silhouette, lean against the wall by Ann-Marie's bed.

"Was it all you dreamed?" asks Eden gently, looking down on Anne-Marie.

"Mostly. But it was tough."

Lena lies still and breathes slowly as they talk.

Anne-Marie continues. "Still, most of the surfers were amazing to me."

"So they should be. You're gonna be great. And Matt?"

"I haven't really heard."

Eden breathes out. "I'm sorry, Anne."

"Yeah. It's okay. But I met this Australian surfer. He's great. Cute accent. And things-"

Eden laughs a little. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. And you guys? Did anything new happen. Meet some pretty girls?"

Lena doesn't know what she wants to hear. "Nothing like that. Nothing's changed," says Eden, and it wasn't that.

Eden and Anne-Marie talk for hours and Lena pretends to be asleep until she is.

*

It's afternoon and Eden is in her shed, goggles and sander on. Lena lifts herself onto a shelf and sits cross-legged. There's some kind of drill piece under her thigh and she shifts over.

The sander hums to a stop. "Hey," says Eden. Lena smiles as Eden lifts the goggles.

"Board looks good," says Lena. "You hear from that guy again?"

"Not yet." Eden runs a hand across the board, frowns and switches the sander back on.

Lena sits in place a moment. When Eden stops the sander Lena says, "Anne's dead asleep. Crashed as soon as we came in."

"She's exhausted," says Eden with concern and Lena hates that she resents that, even a little.

"You'll be out here for a time, then," Lena asks.

Eden's eyes shift to hers and away. "Yeah."

"Okay," Lena says evenly. "Penny wants to cook something good for Anne-Marie so I'm gonna go shopping with her."

"Sure," says Eden and there's a laugh there because none of them can cook.

Lena thinks she might feel like crying but Eden starts the sander up again and Lena leaps from the bench and strolls into the sunlight.

"Ready, Penny?"

"Coming." Penny runs out. She's written a recipe out on a scrap of paper. On the drive they talk about boys and waves and sing "Guatanamera" through the windows.

*

"I've gotta be back in LA in a week," Anne-Marie announces as the three pull their boards off the car. Lena doesn't look at Eden. "I tried to put it off," Anne Marie continues, "but they need some photos before the Rip Curl Masters."

"How long will you be gone?" asks Eden.

"Two weeks, no longer," says Anne-Marie.

"I guess this is your life, now," says Eden.

"I'm sorry, Ede."

"Don't be," says Eden darkly.

Lena's mostly baiting Eden when she says, "Will your Aussie boy be there?"

"Yeah," says Anne-Marie with a grin.

Lena can't smile back. Anne-Marie frowns slightly and follows Eden who strides through the shallow waves, water splashing at her thighs. Soon all three are pushing their way through the heavy swell. They're silent until they're beyond the reef.

"I'm glad for you," Eden says to Anne-Marie finally.

Lena turns a little and watches the sun catch on the waves.

"Thanks," says Anne-Marie generously. "Take that one?" she nods to the horizon.

Eden says, "Aren't you gonna show off for us?"

Anne-Marie smiles again. "Sure." And she paddles out and catches a wave beautifully, folding with it. They watch for a moment.

"She's good," Eden says, watching the waves. "She's getting even better."

"She is," says Lena then turns to Eden whose skin is glinting in the sun and water. Eden looks at her swiftly. "I'll take that one," says Lena, and paddles hard. She pushes her muscles against the water, over the rising wave, and feels Eden's eyes on her as she flies with the ocean to the shore. Though she might be imagining that Eden is watching.

*

Party that night and Anne-Marie slides up and down the lean body of one of the new guys. Eden eyes Anne-Marie and Lena turns away. But then Eden saunters up behind Lena and takes Lena's shoulders, all expectation.

Lena closes her eyes briefly. "Come outside," Lena says, "please."

Eden nods. Outside in the dark Lena says, "I don't think I can do this." And she means, "tell me I'm not just a replacement for her." But she doesn't say it. Eden says nothing so Lena walks away. "I'm not going to do this." Lena's home in bed when Eden and Penny get there. Lena feels Eden watching her.

Hours later Anne-Marie comes home drunk and bumps into the doorway. She swears.

Eden says, "you a'ight?"

"Mm-hmm. Yeah."

And Eden says, steadily, "he's sexy, Anne, you're right," and it doesn't sound like she's in love with Anne-Marie at all.

*

It's early and light angles through cracks in the mismatched curtains.

"Damian called. He wants to take me out offshore," Anne-Marie says softly into Lena's ear.

"Still training?" Lena asks, opening one eye and blinking.

"Yeah." Anne Marie looks hung over.

From the other side of the room Eden says, "Enjoy." The door closes behind Anne-Marie. After a moment Eden gets up. Eden's eyes brush across Lena. Lena watches Eden leave and then glances across at Penny who's asleep.

The shower out the back hisses on. Lena thinks of Eden, clean and wet under the early sky, thinks maybe this is all she can do. She climbs out of bed and walks to the back of the house. Eden's clothes are slung over the wooden shower wall.

Lena stills herself to breathe then pulls her t-shirt over her head, drops her boxers on the ground. She opens the gate. Eden runs her hand over her wet hair and opens her eyes, blinks at Lena through the spray. "You changed your mind," she says. The moment rushes over them with the water. Then Eden puts a hand against Lena's chest and pushes Lena back against the wooden wall. The wood is sharp with splinters against Lena's back.

When Eden relents faintly and steps back into the water, Lena slips to her knees. She bites high on Eden's thigh, the water running over her face. Lena can barely breathe as she moves her lips between Eden's legs. Eden gasps and her back hits the other wall. Lena licks and sucks, drinks the water running from Eden and when she looks up Eden is biting on her own hand, trying to keep quiet. Lena grins and deliberately pushes her tongue against Eden's clit, building a rhythm.

As she comes Eden is calling out, writhing against the wall and Lena's knees and neck are aching. Lena stands, kisses Eden firmly. "You can't forget," she says, "how this feels." Eden can't breathe to respond.

Lena opens the gate, steps out of the shower. And Anne-Marie is turning away, Anne Marie looks back as the gate bangs. Her cheeks are flushed.

"Oh god," says Lena.

"Uh. Damian didn't come-"

Eden steps out of the shower space.

"Fuck," she says. Then, "fuck," again. She snatches her clothes from the shower wall.

"Were you planning to- This is- Were you planning to tell me about this?" Anne-Marie says quietly.

Lena grabs her boxers from the ground and pulls them on as she speaks. "We were. We. Anne, we don't even know what this is. I mean, I-" She looks at Eden, has nothing to say. "I don't know."

Anne-Marie looks at Eden for a long moment.

"I'm going for a run," Anne-Marie says, and then. "I'm, I just need to think. I'm not- I'm just thinking." And Lena loves Anne-Marie for all the ways she's different from Eden.

Eden is silent. Anne-Marie turns, purposefully, and runs away.

A moment later, "Fuck," says Eden, like it's all she can think of. Lena turns away. As she walks into the house she hears the car door slam and the engine start.

"Fuck," says Lena to herself as Eden drives away.

*

The crunch of feet on sandy ground outside and Lena reaches for her guitar as though she weren't sitting staring at the salt-streaked windows. It's almost midday, now, and warm and Anne Marie is out of breath when she opens the door.

"Hi," Lena says.

"I just," Anne-Marie says, looking at the place where the light hits Lena's fingers and the guitar, "didn't expect it."

"Neither did I," says Lena slowly. She takes a breath. "But I've been a bit in love-"

"I kinda can't listen to this," says Anne-Marie, but gently, and Lena says, "No. I guess not." There's a little smile in the way they look at each other.

Penny rolls over, blinks awake. And then she's full of some boy's late night exploits in a jeep and Cassie who threw up on Lana's shoes and how Justin looked out for Penny all night but maybe she likes Tyro more.

"Morning, Pen," says Anne-Marie, and, "Who's Tyro?" and of course there's relief to be thinking about something else. Penny doesn't ask where Eden is until Anne-Marie's searching though the closet for food saying, "have you got all your homework done for tomorrow?"

*

Lena lies on her back in the dark and watches the shifting shadow of trees against stars on the ceiling. Anne Marie is on her bed, breathing deeply and possibly asleep. When Eden pulls in the headlights erase the silver and black shadows, the wheels kick at sand and gravel. Lena hears Anne-Marie roll over and sigh a little and knows Anne-Marie is awake.

Eden comes across the kitchen and stands in the doorway. Anne-Marie lifts her head and rests it on one hand. A few seconds and no one speaks, then Anne-Marie says, "hey."

"Hey," says Eden, moving her head slightly.

"Okay," says Anne-Marie slowly and perhaps to herself, gaze still meeting Eden's.

Eden drops her eyes to the floor. She doesn't look up as she steps around a beanbag and some weights to get to her bed. Then Anne-Marie lies back again and turns a little to face the wall. Lena watches as Eden lifts her shirt over her head, nipples blue black against the gunmetal of her skin in the silver light. Eden's eyes meet Lena's, run swiftly to the place where Lena's bare thigh is stretched from beneath a thin sheet, run back to Lena's face. Then Eden pulls a tank top over her head and lies flat on her back on the bed. Lena watches for a while then turns back to the silvery shadows.

Later Lena stirs to feel a soft tongue against her teeth, a knee between her thighs. She blinks into Eden's hair but can't hold her eyes open. Eden's lips slip over her collarbone and close on her breast. Eden's body slides across Lena's and Lena arches a little, sleepily, under the weight. She breathes in sharply as Eden bites down lightly on her nipple but Eden has a hand across Lena's mouth and the noise is muffled. Lena moves again, shifts one hip upward between Eden's thighs and it presses hard against Eden. Eden growls at the back of her throat. And Lena closes her eyes, half asleep, and lets Eden grind her body against Lena's hipbone, lets Eden squeeze out all her anger in the silence and dark. Eden comes, hissing into Lena's ear, all forgetfulness and beads of sweat. Lena slides into sleep again in moments, sex in her nostrils, Eden against her body.

"Lena, baby," breathes Eden against Lena's skin.

*

When Lena wakes to the persistent morning squall of local birds Anne-Marie and Eden are lifting boards onto the car and really, Lena might have dreamed Eden in her bed.

The surf is pounding against the island and out on it these are the same girls they've always been, bold and laughing and always with one eye on the others. Though now Lena is careful not to let her eyes fall too long on the line of Eden's shoulders or the muscles running in Eden's back. And sometimes Anne-Marie's eyes dart away too soon.

Anne-Marie twists and tumbles off the back of a wave and Eden frowns, watching.

"She's fine," says Lena, too quickly. Eden throws an irritated glance Lena's way. And then Anne-Marie's head surfaces and smiles and Lena is relieved.

When Lena says to Eden, "Yeah, I don't know how we do this," it's not out of the blue.

Eden nods and turns her head toward the surf. And it feels a little like they're finally talking though Lena maybe adds this to the list of times she's known Eden they do this all in Eden's time. Still, "Let's not fuck this up," Lena says. "Whatever happens."

They've known one another for more than ten years.

"No," says Eden. "No." And reaches to touch Lena's hand where it rests on her board.

Later the three sit on the beach and watch some new kids surf. The sun is curving gold at the horizon and reflecting from wave after wave after wave.

"Remember this," says Anne-Marie and Eden smiles at her and then rests her palm against Lena's calf. "I gotta go tomorrow," Anne Marie says like they don't know and drops her eyes to Eden's hand where it lies on Lena's leg. "I'm gonna miss you guys."

They stand up all together and brush sand from thighs, pick up their boards and head for the car. It's Hawaii, under a blue sky. And every day is summer.

*  
end


End file.
